ProneSense

My name is Tanya Wiese and I am a Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Interventional Pulmonologist.  Prior to the Covid  19 pandemic, I primarily worked in Interventional Pulmonology.  However, when the pandemic took hold, I went back to working exclusively in the Intensive Care Unit.  During this time we were dealing with a large volume of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients which carries a 42% mortality risk. Currently there are only 2 therapies that have shown to reduce mortality in this patient population.  One very simple therapy is to place a patient in the prone position (face down in bed).  Prone positioning has shown to decrease mortality in ARDS by 27%, but one of the risk to the prone position is the development of facial pressure injuries (50% risk) which increases mortality and healthcare cost.  As you can imagine these injuries are very devastating for patients, their families, and the healthcare staff.  This pandemic brought to light the gap in wound care prevention for the prone positioning patient not just in the ICU but also in the surgical field as most spinal and rectal surgeries are done in this position.  Pressure injuries in this surgical population can be as high as 66%. My company, ProneSense, was started to combat the problem of facial pressure injuries while decrease healthcare cost, decreasing the manual labor of the healthcare staff, and improving access to best care equipment and supplies to all hospital.

Prone positioning is used in > 1 million spinal/rectal surgical cases in the United States annually and is used in >300,000 severe respiratory failure cases annually (non pandemic time) in the United States alone. Currently there are NO dynamic support surface (considered gold standard for wound care prevention) or foam dressings on the market specifically designed to protect the face.  Dynamic air support surfaces decrease pressure injuries by 58-78%, while foam dressings can decrease pressure injuries by up to 88%.

ProneSense has developed a patented low air loss facial pillow with a universal platform that can be used in surgery or in the ICU.  We have also developed soft silicone facial dressings specifically designed for the face.  Finally, we have a low air loss body pillow for patients to self prone when diagnosed with pneumonia as this has been shown to decrease morbidity and mortality in this patient population as well. Our body pillow can also be used under the heels or skull when in the supine position or under the ankles when in the prone position.  

We are seeking to raise funds for inventory and to completion of our universal platform.  Potential revenue as seen below is with projections of capturing just 1/4th the US market. 

Spinal Cases

AireT $350 x 250K = $87.5M

ProneFoam $194 x 250K = $48.5M

Pump $240 x 1.5K = $360K

Platform $350 x 1.5K = $525K

ICU

AireT $350 x 69K = $24.15M

ProneFoam $194 x 69K x 10d = $13.386M

Pump $240 x 1.5K = $360K

Platform $350 x 1.5K = $525K

Awake Prone Positioning Patients

BodyAire $159 x 150K = $23.85M

ProneFoam $194 x 150K = $29.1M 

Pump $240 x 1.5K = $360K

Currently, I have 3 partners who are very experienced in healthcare product development, manufacturing, and sales. I have 28 years of experience working as a physician and have also consulted with several different companies to help develop various interventional pulmonary medical devices. So far, our company has no debt. We are looking for investments up to 2M which would be 20% of our company.  This money will be for product inventory, sales development, and completion of our universal bed platform for the ICU.  My goal is to eventually have an all-in-one smart mattress that can be used for the supine or prone patients.

Thank you for your consideration.

Tanya Wiese, DO
Owner/President of ProneSense